Yesterday the pioneer woman helped to win a continent. Today with the same spirit of determination,
American women are working to save this way of life. Working to save the nation from the impact of total war.
Working to build a sure defense.
American women are alert to the dangers which threaten our democracy today.
Women trained in science are testing and observing and working to discover new ways to meet this threat.
Other women, skilled and unskilled, are asking, "What can I do to help?"
This film will show what women are doing and what they can do.
Every woman has an important place in the National Defense Program.
In science, in industry, and in the home.
Silk is vital to national defense. Its most important use is for parachutes and powder bags.
New substitutes are being perfected in the laboratory to meet the growing demand.
Normal wear is hard on clothes, but not so hard as a machine like this.
And there is the direct relation between an abrasion tester, clothing, and national defense.
Durability and economy are important to American consumers called on to make sacrifices in this emergency.
Defense is more than military equipment and armed forces.
Defense is keeping the nation strong and healthy.
In this important work of defense, our scientists are experimenting with small animals to find out things
about vitamins. A complete report of their reaction and growth is recorded after they are given experimental food formulas,
during which they are carefully checked and weighed. New and health-giving diets are being developed through this research.
This woman is a modern pioneer, a scientist. She symbolizes the tremendously important work of women.
In chemistry, in bacteriology, in physics, in nutrition, in medicine, in hundreds of hospitals and laboratories throughout our country.
Men and women who work on the production of our defense weapons must be well-nourished.
Good nutrition is not entirely a question of income. Thousands of women are attending free lectures on how to buy food and
prepare meals which are nutritious and economical.
Women working in industrial plants need costumes which are comfortable and safe around machinery.
Uniforms which meet these needs have been designed.
Two-thirds of the jobs in defense industries can be done by women today.
And officials of the defense program are advocating more extensive job training for women and girls.
These girls already trained in our new defense program are able to turn out small machine parts.
More women are being trained in mechanical trades to meet the shortage of skilled labor.
For drill presses, turret laves, milling machines, planers, and welding equipment.
Women are being recruited daily to help make planes for the nation's air forces.
Three million women in factories all over the country are making things.
Sewing strong fabrics, sewing control surfaces for our fighter planes.
In a war in which so many machines and tools and so much metal is required, it is strange how much sewing there is.
Women are bringing a natural skill to an important job. Their efficient contribution is helping us to speed up
production of bombers and fighting ships.
One parachute takes 65 yards of silk. Only silk has the lightness and strength essential in making parachutes.
Women who have had special training in the manufacture of this product are the only ones who can be employed in these factories.
A man's life depends on every parachute, so there is no margin for error.
The nimble fingers of these women are capable of turning out perfect workmanship on unbelievably fast running machines.
These highly specialized industries are finding women extraordinarily efficient, and are using them
more and more in the making of precision instruments which are so essential in war today.
All of these instruments require ball bearings or roller bearings.
Bearings so precise that experts must use a microscope for assembly.
This is work in which women excel, giving it constant care and alertness.
Women's hands, thousands of them, skillful, patient, and accurate, are assembling parts precisely
dimensioned, without which no bomber could fly. And without which no mechanized land unit could move.
Every ship that glides down the ways must have electrical switches.
Women today are assembling, gauging, fitting together, riveting, drilling, and making them.
This work requires fingers that move with lightning speed. Every defense worker doing her job well.
That's the battle of production and the essence of defense.
Women are working side by side with men on the assembly lines and in inspection units of munition factories.
Millions of shells are moving off the production lines in our great plants from coast to coast.
Shells for tanks and naval guns, shells for coast and field artillery, shells for anti-aircraft defense.
Women are skillful in gauging and checking for minute imperfections.
Mass production is important when you realize that a single machine gun can fire 1400 rounds a minute.
Again we turn to the women who are asking, "What can I do for defense?"
The American Women's Voluntary Services provides instruction in many basic skills to over 80,000 women.
Soon the Office of Civilian Defense will cooperate not only with the AWBS, but with all other private and public agencies
to aid volunteers in obtaining the training they want. A training indispensable in war, valuable in peace.
The Red Cross today is the culmination of the work of a woman who pioneered under the duress of a war.
Clara Barton, its founder, determined that the care of the wounded should not be left to the unskilled.
Today, true to its tradition, the American Red Cross volunteers are responding to the needs of war distressed peoples.
25 million and more surgical dressings have already been sent to Europe.
Medical science's newest weapon against death is the blood bank.
Thousands of women today are giving their blood, giving the essence of life, to save life.
Our history is full of the inspiration which our pioneer women left us as a proud heritage,
and again today American women are stirred by that heritage.
Serving their country in the laboratory, on defense production lines, in the civilian defense services,
and in the home, which is after all the first line of defense.
Women have always been the guardians of the home and the children. The future of our country.
And they are determined that our democracy shall survive and that our precious freedoms shall be preserved.